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1/18 P51C Mustang "Lopes Hope the 3rd"


airscale

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evening chaps :)

 

well thank you for such a warm welcome back! you are all too kind :)

 

 

Great to see you back Peter and I can fully relate to your "building block" (like "writer's block"), if there is such a thing, after your Spitfire home run, right out of the park.  This reminds me of sports teams that win the national or world title, then try to do it all over again the next year.  They usually stumble out of the gate the next season, because the motivation just isn't there like it was the year before, because they have already accomplished the highest honor in their field.  If they are a great team, they soon get back to their winning form by mid-season and then are a threat to win it all over again by the end of the season.  I have no doubt you will do the same thing, because you are a great builder and now that the beginning of the "season" is over and you have something that truly motivates you.

 

Now for some further motivation.  Has anybody won some of the awards you won at Telford more than once?  With all the entries and competition each year, I sort of doubt it, but you CAN!  Go Peter Go!

 

BTW, one suggestion if I may.  I note that there are a few 1/18 scale Merlin Engine kits out there and if you could use your skill to pack one of these babies into this project, you might actually match or exceed the Spitfire.  Ok, maybe not match it, but darn close!

 

Cheers,

Chuck

 

 

Hi Chuck - that is sorta how it felt actually, I just ran out of steam and with having to wait for the HpH model to be made I got in the doldrums pretty quickly. That said, I am all fired up now but have a lot to do in PE design & research before I start actually building :)

 

Now about that merlin - I did toy with the idea, but given I have even less time now than I had before, I thought better of it as I would spend months and months just on the engine and actually after doing the Spit 'clean' I actually quite like that concept - I will still go to town on it, but major stuff like exposed engines I think I will leave for now..

 

 

Came by for a second look.  No canopy?

 

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Mark

 

 

Hi Mark - there were some vacform canopy parts including a Malcolm Hood, I just forgot to photograph them - I won't be using them but will drop in a photo next time :)

 

 

Hello Peter,

There is a lot of work to be done!

The blueprints have many distortions need to be taken in account. They need to be verified by dimentions written on them - not an easy task!

I hope this picture will help you. I drew it using true dimentions from NAA drawings originally to convert 1/32 P-51D into B model, but the work isn't done yet.

This drawing scaled to 1/18 so you need just download full-size image.

 27083428798_30be2e68a0_b.jpgP51B_cockpitarrangement118 by Alexey Matvienko, on Flickr

 

 

Hi Alexey - those are extrmely useful drawings - I have had a go myself in translating what I see (mindful of the scanned distortion of the originals etc) and in some places I redesign to fit the model so will be interesting to see how they compare. Thanks very much for including them :)

 

onto the last few days output then...

 

I started by finding the appropriate structural drawings & turned them into negatives so I can better see what is happening when I draw on them - here is the side profile at the rear of the canopy and I have started to scale these to the models dimensions and work out major structural features - predominantly longerons & bulkhead positions.

 

WIP28_zpskrodmqnp.jpg

 

..once I had the basics in lines I could scale another useful drawing that has some of the cockpit features laid out on it..

 

WIP29_zps54wo0uzt.jpg

 

..I had taken a station (bulkhead position) drawing from the parts manual and scaled it to the model to get a rough idea of positioning..  this is the start from where everything else is oriented so a scaling check and correlation with the kit positions was started..

 

WIP35_zpsimsdqaof.jpg

 

this taught me to not treat parts manuals as gospel, look to factory drawings for that as you can see how my basic structure does not align with the parts drawing..

 

WIP30_zps9gmpai2f.jpg

 

..it aligns better with a good plan I found (jumpei Temma again) - I was after the Neely drawings but can't seem to find them available anywhere - these will do for now..

 

WIP31_zpssericquu.jpg

 

..once I had settled on the framework, I went back to make sure I had scaled all the parts I had designed to fit the model - this is where subtle translation of drawings and calculating scaling measurements is evened out to make them all fit the actual model in hand..

 

WIP32_zpsbkleoyg7.jpg

 

..they were all adjusted and tabs made to fit into brass channel that will form the lower longerons that run the length of the cockpit at top & bottom.. these are juts the cores, there are detailed laminates that fit each of these that carry the details like strengtheners or rivets etc..

 

 

WIP34_zpsb8uucktf.jpg

 

 

so in summary, still a lot of PC work to do, but I might take a look at starting to model the seat soon as I did with the Spit - it sort of gets some wind in the sails on the project and is mainly tube & pressings so I think is something I can start to take a break from the laptop (..and give you something P51 to look at!)...

 

TTFN

 

Peter

Edited by airscale
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I like this.

 

'. . . basic structure does not align with the parts drawing.'

Sheet fed press paper stretches.

 

Although blueprint paper is fed between rollers prior to image transfer, the drawing is aligned on top of the paper so when the paper is processed the image is direct.

 

'I started by finding the appropriate structural drawings'

All from Aircorps Library?

 

Good stuff, Peter.

 

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Mark

 

 

 

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Peter, why don't you customize the Corel workspace? I see that you are using metric scales and rulers and not using true scale factor.

There are four screenshots that will help you make work much easier. Click on "Options"...

40155990735_7674507819_z.jpgCDR2 by Alexey Matvienko, on Flickr

 

...and get this menu. Then choose Documents-> Guidelines-> Rulers and set "Inches" in the "Units" field...

27177321048_884d2dcae6_b.jpgCDR3 by Alexey Matvienko, on Flickr

 

...then click "Edit scale" to get this window. 1/32 is shown in this picture as a sample.

40340488244_2417fe908f_b.jpgCDR1 by Alexey Matvienko, on Flickr

 

Now you can draw in true scale, taking dimensions direct from N.A.A. plans and get direct scale drawing! Look at my 1/32 sample here. You can also choose fractional or decimal units that is very convinient options, because original plans have both of them.

27177320148_7dba5f247f_b.jpgCDR4 by Alexey Matvienko, on Flickr

 

Best wishes,

 

Alex

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Hi Peter,

 

I can probably get you in touch with Charlie Neeley if you are still interested in his drawings.  I have those that he offers for the P-51D but nothing for the B/C models.  I will send him a link to your thread here as I am sure he would find it quite fascinating.  Plus, as he knows the Mustang about as well as anybody walking the planet, he just might be a valuable resource for you.

 

Cheers,

Chad Veich

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Ye Gods! He's back at it again! Like yourself, I've just started looking into Aircorps Library. It's taken me a little bit to get used to the way they do their cataloging, but there's definitely a wealth of info there.... especially on P-51s!

 

Well judging by the progress so far, I'm pretty confident you're going to do the impossible and upstage your own Spitfire with this one! Really glad to see you got your modelling mojo back Peter :)

 

Good luck!

 

Craig

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Peter, I have a question:

How true to scale is the kit fuselage you're using? What I Wonder is, when you're doing the drawings for PE and other parts, are you scaling them to absolute 1/18,or tweaking them slightly to fit any slight inaccuracies in the kit fuselage? Not sure if I'm making sense in my wording here, hopefully you get what I'm asking.

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I've just started looking into Aircorps Library. It's taken me a little bit to get used to the way they do their cataloging, but there's definitely a wealth of info there.... especially on P-51s!

 

Hey Craig , does the library have any full planform or profile elevation

drawings , or are they mostly detail and assembly drawings ?

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